Andouille in natural casings

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daveomak

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Nov 12, 2010
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Omak,Washington,U.S.A.
Thanks to everyone here for my return to making sausage.

My first and last attempt was about 15 yrs ago. Making sausage using a mixer/grinder/stuffer combination was frustrating, to say the least. Now I have a new smoker,and verticle stuffer. Also I have a new grinder since I blew up my wifes KitchenAid mixer.
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  I have parts ordered but I won't be using it again no matter what.

I picked up a 2 pack of pork shoulders the other day. It was a really good deal.
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  One is for BBB that will be posted later and one is for andouille.  

The pork shoulders:

1fffbbcb_PorkShoulders.jpg


Ready to debone:

ff5a33a2_ShoulderReadytoDebone.jpg


Deboning the first shoulder, I was a little tenative trying to figure out where the bone laid. I used that one for sausage. Deboning the second shoulder went fairly well until I realized the bone was different on the other leg. Still, it went better than the first. That one will be butterflied for the BBB.

The shoulder blades for those interested. This pic may help in your deboning attempt.  

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I removed all the fat from the meat as I was cutting it up and the silverskin and sinew. The meat was cut into 1" chunks or so. The fat frozen. Additional fat taken from bacon ends and pieces was added. I ground the fat thru a 1/8" plate and added to the cubed pork. Added seasonings, cure and soy protein. Mixed and recooled.

Using my NEW verticle stuffer, I filled the casings.

Let me say this again. The verticle stuffer is worth it's weight in gold, so to speak, when recalling stuffing using a grinder with tubes.

Stuffing sausage casings is now FUN compared to using the grinder and tubes. I am so pleased I could just
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 .

Fortunatly, I did not prepare enough casings for the amount of meat I had prepared and had to have sausage patties for breakfast the next morning. I will make that mistake again.

The casings stuffed.

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After about 8hrs smoke using alder to 165*.

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They came out pretty good.

The SNAP from the natural casing adds another dimension to the flavor profile.

The packaged spices left something to be desired. I will ponder the additions needed over a link and cold beer.

I added the soy protein according to the directions. It was too much. That will be adjusted also.

All in all, I am pleased with the results. Next batch will be different and hopefully more to my liking.

Now, experimenting with making sausages is something I am looking forward to doing.

Thanks to all of the folks here AGAIN for rekindling the smoking bug.   
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great job....any chance left for an open slice pic.................
 
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  Great job on the Sausage!  I agree, having a dedicated vertical stuffer makes the job much more easier. 
 
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Dave,

What's wrong with the appearance?  The only thing I see is that they are a bit flattened and have some grill indentations.  Maybe stuffing a bit tighter and moving them around on the grill a bit more while cooking will help with that. 

I have a lot more success doing sausage when I run low temps (120-130) before kicking up to finish off.
 
The pics are on the url from the search tool I sent ya.

  Craig

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They are really pretty good. Just missing that ZING I was looking for. You know when you bite into a sausage and go WOW that is really good.

I think they need some fresh garlic and hot peppers or something. The background taste from the bagged spices is good. Just needs something else.

The SNAP from the casings is awesome. For now, that is where the ZING ends. When I get the ZING in the meat, they will be heaven in a casing.
 
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